Wood & Panel

Ebru Manav

Ebru Manav

In a candid conversation with us, Ebru Manav, Marketing and Product Manager of Henkel IMEA Region bares her heart on product developments, market strategies, researches and more.

   
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How important is the Adhesive Technologies business for Henkel Group?

Ebru Manav : Henkel Adhesive Technologies is divided in five Strategic Business Units, each following its own business model and targeting different markets and customers. The Henkel Adhesive Technologies business accounts for about 50 percent of sales at Henkel and for more than half of Henkel’s operating profit (EBIT). Henkel Adhesive Technologies – a leading solution provider for adhesives, sealants and functional coatings worldwide. We offer a comprehensive portfolio of tailor-made solutions for our customers and of high-quality consumer products. Our global team of experts partners with customers to deliver best-in-class service. Our powerful innovations and leading technologies under top-brands such as Loctite create sustainable value for industrial customers, consumers and professional users.

   
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What is Henkel Adhesives’ marketing strategy for 2016?

Ebru Manav : As the leading solution provider for adhesives, sealants and functional coatings worldwide, the Adhesive Technologies business unit covers virtually the entire spectrum of the global adhesives market with its specialized market sectors. We develop our marketing strategies at both the global and regional level. The measures derived from our planning are then implemented locally. Our strong, internationally established brands are a central element in the range of products and services we offer. Within our branding strategy, we consistently leverage our five global technology cluster brands in the industrial markets and our four brand platforms in the consumer business.

   
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You have just developed a new technology that enables the welding of incompatible plastics. Can you please elaborate more on that?

Ebru Manav : Whether it’s in the automotive industry, the medical industry or for home appliances – a number of plastic combinations can be found everywhere. To join these materials permanently, various joining techniques are applied. Welding such materials has been a reliable joining technique for decades. The problem: Until now, only plastics with similar properties can be welded. An expert team from Henkel Adhesive Technologies has recently developed a new technology that enables the welding of a number of incompatible plastics. With a special dosing technique a compatibilized bonding agent is applied onto plastic material and components. After this procedure the materials can be welded with all conventional welding machines available on the market. The technology offers a high potential for optimizing processes and production procedures within various plastics processing industries. In addition, this technique can be applied to the welding of compatible plastics.

   
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Innovation has played a major role in making Henkel one of the global leaders in adhesive. Can you tell us about any of the upcoming products your team is working on?

Ebru Manav : Expenditures by the Henkel Group for research and development in 2015 amounted to 478 million euros. 63 percent of the amount were spent at the Adhesive Technologies unit. The growing importance of the emerging markets also impacts the R&D strategy of Adhesive Technologies.The business unit provides local expertise and solutions through a global network of technology centers.

Bonding is one of the key topics of the 21st century. Henkel adhesive solutions are applied in a diverse range of markets encompassing transportation, electronics, aerospace, metal bonding, packaging as well as building and furniture. In particular, wooden parts glued with Henkel adhesives are becoming of more importance – among many applications in the furniture industry, they are applied in residential and infrastructure buildings, bridges or even wind farms.We partner with our customers during their product development process and support them with tailor-made tools and best practice experience.

As a specific example we can mention about our UV-curing hotmeltTechnomelt products used for high gloss panel production. High-gloss panels are very much in vogue – and not just in the furniture industry. “Fusion Coating” is an innovative surface finishing concept for the decorative treatment of melamine-faced chipboard. In the “Fusion Coating” process, the UV-curing hotmeltTechnomelt CHS 370 UV is applied directly to the melamine-faced wood particle panel as the primer for one or several further lacquer coatings designed to create the desired high-gloss effect. Thanks to its good adhesion to melamine, its flexibility and its extensive compatibility with UV lacquers matched to the system, Technomelt CHS 370 UV creates the ideal basis for generating high-gloss effects. Traditional processes aligned to the achievement of a high-gloss finish simply cannot match the benefits of “Fusion Coating.” Laminating a high-gloss film to the chipboard tends to be very expensive, while the application of lacquer coats to melamine-faced chipboard likewise gives rise to problems as the primers used exhibit poor adhesion to melamine resin and lack the flexibility of a UV-curing hotmelt.

 
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Flooring, laminates, wall panels, window & door manufacturing – adhesives play a major role in many woodworking applications. In terms of market share, how much important is the woodworking and furniture sector for Henkel Adhesives?

Ebru Manav : Wood working and furniture is a key segment for Henkel adhesives technologies, it is a core business for Henkel and is part of our Consumer and packaging adhesive business.
Henkel adhesive solutions are applied in a diverse range of applications in furniture and wood working industry. In particular, wooden parts glued with Henkel adhesives are becoming of more importance – among many applications in the furniture industry, they are applied in residential and infrastructure buildings, bridges or even wind farms.

The furniture industry today significantly benefits from the rise in the globalization and major population shift to the urban areas worldwide. Furniture adds to the aesthetic value of an establishment such as homes, hotels, offices and other indoor or outdoor areas. Typical application fields include kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and office furniture and related components such as profiles, cabinets, doors, parquets, laminate flooring etc.

As technology progresses multi-functional, versatile furniture is gaining popularity, furniture designers get more innovative and daring with their designs. Global furniture companies, concerned about reducing their carbon footprints have now started offering environment friendly alternatives. Low toxicity is also a priority items on customer’s list, when shopping for an environment friendly furniture because they want to reduce their negative impact on health.

Henkel offers PUR Hotmelt, Non-Reactive Hotmelt , Liquid PU, Waterbased adhesive, UV Curing Hotmelt solutions for all those highly demanding application fields that enhance overall quality of home life. We partner with our customers during their product development process and support them with tailor-made tools and best practice experience.

 
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How is Henkel Adhesives faring in the Asian and Middle East markets respectively?

Henkel : Currently 43% of total Henkel’s Sales are coming from Emerging Markets. We expect the shift of growth from mature to emerging markets to continue. As a result, we are expanding our already strong footprint in these markets in the coming years APAC and IMEA are two key geographies for Henkel and represent a significant part of the emerging markets.

The Adhesive Technologies business unit generated solid organic sales growth of 2.4 percent, thus growing at the same rate as the market. Nominally, sales increased by 10.6 percent from 8,127 million euros in the previous year to 8,992 million euros.
The Africa/Middle East and Eastern Europe regions recorded strong sales growth, despite the ongoing difficult political situation and challenging economic conditions prevailing. Sales in Asia (excluding Japan) showed positive development.The business unit achieved a solid increase in organic sales in emerging markets with a very strong increase in Latin America.

   
 

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